BRI: From Strategy to Profit

Abstract

Almost exactly nine years ago today, while on an official visit to Kazakstan,President Xi

Jinping announced the creation of a “Silk Road Economic Belt”. This has since come to be known as the “Belt and Road Initiative’ (“BRI”) and in 2018 was included into the Constitution of China. In essence it is one of the largest infrastructure and development projects in history. As such it represents tremendous opportunity but also a source of concern, largely centered around implementation practices dealing with the loaning of money to countries to bolster BRI projects and the use of Chinese labour to construct several of these projects. A more recent development has been the rise of the “Global Development Initiative” (“GDI”) which was introduced by President Xi in his speech to the UN General Assembly a year ago. Although the Chinese government has clarified that the GDI is not replacing the BRI but is a twin engine to enhance cooperation. This further stresses the need to understand the strategy behind these “initiatives” and how cooperation can lead to mutual benefits. This presentation will examine the perspective of “for profit” businesses and how they can position themselves to realize profit based on an understanding of why the initiatives have been created.